The Spanish Dean !

History Of The Circuit

The sport cars have been a facet permanently attached to the Royal Automobile Club of Spain from its origin. It should be remembered that it was the celebration in 1903 of the Paris-Madrid race that triggered to proceed to the foundation of the Club. For this reason, the official inauguration of the Jarama in 1967 marked a milestone in the already long history of the RACE.

After forty years, the track continues to host multiple activities, in a further demonstration of the commitment of the Club to maintain this important work of expansion of this sport. Although for many having exceeded forty years does not mean that it is not a mere anniversary, which indeed proves that more than four decades ago this was virtually unthinkable in Spain that a permanent track of speed of excellent characteristics would be the Jarama Circuit. Until that time, the sports races in Spain had been carried out in improvised circuits which took advantage of the paths of roads and streets for public use.

Sandro Rocci was responsible for the construction of the future circuit, appointing Rodriguez Riveiro and Dominguez Aguado as architects and they were entrusted with the construction of the gallery and the pits, and John Hugenholtz, who had a profound knowledge of this type of facilities and had the experience of having designed the circuits in Zanwoort in Holland, Suzuka in Japan and others in North America, to gather technical information on engineering which at that time Spain was totally ignorant. Hugenholtz came to our country and visited the forty-six hectares reserved for the circuit, to which he described as ideal for the realization of this project.

The first site formation and clearance work was carried out throughout 1964. The track had an actual length of 3,432 meters, although FIA homologation was 3,404 meters, this measurement corresponds to the path that was used by the racing cars. The numerous curves that consists in the Jarama Circuit made it a very technical circuit, although the wide nature of its roadway, nine meters, therefore allowing very good condition for driving. For its construction more than two million kilograms of cement and four thousand cubic meters of gravel were needed. The ground was first stabilized with a layer of cement with a thickness of 15 centimeters, on which is superimposed different layers of asphaltic concrete, the last of them, called road surface which had a finer gravel than the previous one. The end result was a good surface for disputing any sporting events.

In spite of the fact that the heavy rains during the winter of 1965 and the spring of the following year this delayed the normal rhythm of the works, during the last days of 1966 the Spanish sportsmen had first contact with the new circuit.

Since then and until our days, evidence of the world of Formula 1, moto GP, and multitude of smaller tests, has made the circuit of the Jarama as one of the most important circuits at a global level. A Legend...